Anime DVD Review: “Cowboy Bebop Remix Volume 4″

The Cowboy Bebop Remix Volume 4 DVD includes four episodes of Cowboy Bebop: “My Funny Valentine,” “Black Dog Serenade,” “Mushroom Samba,” and “Speak Like a Child.” This “remix” version of the Volume 4 DVD includes new Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mixes of the episodes and it also includes bonus features that were not included on the original release of Volume 4. The audio options on this disc are English Stereo, Japanese Stereo, English Dolby 5.1, and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1. You can also choose to watch the disc with or without subtitles.

During the episodes on this disc, there’s some character development for Faye Valentine and Jet Black. In “My Funny Valentine,” Faye learns she was cryogenically frozen for 54 years after being in an accident. Faye is also the focus of “Speak Like a Child”; in this episode, she receives a mysterious package that contains an “old-fashioned” videocassette. Jet and Spike go to great lengths to find a way to play the videocassette in order to see what’s on it. In “Black Dog Serenade,” the viewer learns why Jet ended up getting cybernetic implants.

And then there’s “Mushroom Samba.” It’s an episode that focuses on Ed and Ein, and it shows the mishaps they have trying to find food for the crew of the Bebop. This is probably one of the strangest episodes in the Cowboy Bebop series; also, I get the feeling that it was a “filler” episode, because it doesn’t truly advance the overall plot of the series.

Once again, music references rear their head in some of the episode titles. “My Funny Valentine” is a reference to a jazz standard, “Black Dog” serenade is a reference to “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin, and “Speak Like a Child” is the name of a song by Herbie Hancock.

Just like the previous three Cowboy Bebop Remix DVDs, the menus on this DVD are animated. While I do have some issues in regards to navigating these DVD menus, I believe that the overall look and feel of these menus is an improvement over the menus on the original pressing of the Cowboy Bebop DVDs.

The major bonus feature on Cowboy Bebop Remix Volume 4 is audio commentary on the episode “Mushroom Samba,” which is provided by director Shinichiro Watanabe and music composer Yoko Kanno. The commentary is in Japanese with English subtitles. The commentary spends more time on humor than it does on truly providing commentary on the episode. The commentary is entertaining, but you may not enjoy it if you’re looking for any real behind-the-scenes information on the making of the episode.

In addition to the commentary, there were two other bonus features included: trailers for other properties that Bandai was promoting at the time Cowboy Bebop Remix Volume 4 was released and the English credits.

If you don’t already have Cowboy Bebop in your home video collection and want to add it, you can either buy the six individually released Cowboy Bebop Remix DVDs, or you can purchase the Cowboy Bebop Remix DVD Collection that takes the six individual discs and collects them into one box set.

I wrote this review after watching a copy of Cowboy Bebop Remix Volume 4 that my husband and I purchased.

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